Review: Amusements by Ikechukwu Ufomadu

Ikechukwu Ufomadu is an absolute card, with one of the leanest, most polished, smoothly hilarious introductions to a Fringe debut I've ever seen. Taking the stage in his tight tuxedo, fiddling with the mic in an effortlessly funny bit of business, he's a slightly stiff, impossibly formal speaker who's forever high on his own oratory.

A clown with impeccable diction and manners, his untrammelled, joke-free soliloquy from Hamlet is gripping, powerful stuff. Yet elsewhere, whether channelling the spirits of JFK or FDR, Shakespeare or Herman Melville, he relentlessly interrogates and pulls apart the English language, finding original gags everywhere among the very syntax and lexicon, authoritatively, genially and pointlessly talking, just talking, with a joyous, mellifluous flow while radiating American sincerity, standards and bonhomie.

Unfortunately though, because the persona is so immensely compelling, the appeal then rather falls off a cliff as it emerges that this truly is all there is, that the show is essentially all surface and no substance. You can palpably feel the energy in the room dip as realisation sets in. Ufomadu does then actually loosen things up a bit with a few musical twists and lets his mask slip ever so slightly with some audience questions. But it's never quite enough. Baited to want to know more about the man behind the tux, you can't help but feel catfished. Flourishing his verbosity like a refined, gentleman swordsman, he keeps you at arm's length.